Griff Rhys Jones interview: ‘Apparently I said outrageous things’

The presenter justifies his recent comments on the inaccessibility of British
rivers to Gerard O’Donovan

Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones: Jones and his dog Cadbury Photo: BBC

By Gerard O'Donovan

7:21PM BST 23 Jul 2009

Griff Rhys Jones is unrepentant. “Apparently I said some outrageous things,” he says, with an air of shock. “I was on this programme Countryfile and said I was astounded that 97 per cent of rivers over three metres wide are privately owned and not allowed to be travelled down. And the anglers’ and fishers’ associations got into a complete lather: ‘Griff Rhys Jones is paddling up the wrong creek’ and ‘An ignorant actor has announced’, that sort of thing…”

Jones is in full spate. We’re talking about his new BBC One TV series Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones, in which he canoes, cruises, punts and paddles down some of Britain’s loveliest waterways. His current topic is the furore his recent public pronouncements around the series have already kicked up: that he’s “astonished” that “there are 41,000 miles of navigable river in England and Wales and only 1,500… would you be allowed to go down.” The rest are closed off to the public by the water authorities and landowners keen to preserve privacy or exploit fishing rights (hence the resistance of the anglers’ and fishers’ assocations who, it seems, have bought up quite a few of the river banks).

“They are obviously keen to defend it because they know it’s wrong,” he says. “I mean, they fought a rearguard action to stop rivers being included in the right to roam. Obviously they won that victory and now are keen – very keen – because I am harmless, an actor, merely an actor, merely pointing out that when I went on the river I did find it strange how much…” He breaks off to take a breath. “On the Derwent, for example, you can take a little trip and go downriver maybe two miles only to be ordered out of your canoe because the river passes into private land.”

His words surge on. Occasional knowing chuckles or interjections (such as how the Scottish enshrined a “right to paddle” in their rambling legislation) are absorbed like minor tributaries into the greater flow. But gradually he allows his attention to be piloted back to Rivers itself – which, to be fair, shows few signs of limited access.

“Most of it is me complaining really,” he laughs, recalling this Sunday’s first episode in which he travels by river 100 miles across the top of Scotland. Along the way he had to abseil down the Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall at Kinlochleven, take a severe pummelling while “canyoning” in Bruar Water, and swim for 15 minutes in the freezing Tay in the middle of November.

“I’m not quite sure what that was supposed to prove,” he chuckles again. “It almost flayed me alive. The man who got in before me turned bright red.”

From a viewer’s perspective, Jones’s pain is not just palpable, it’s pleasurable. As one of television’s most amiable presenters he turns even agony into fun. Rivers is full of adventures and laughter as it meanders along, each of its five episodes exploring how rivers have shaped Britain’s landscapes and history. And like 2007’s Mountain, also on BBC One and presented by Jones, it is a showcase for some of our most splendid natural wonders.

“One of the attractions for a BBC One audience is that we are off into what is undoubtedly Britain at its finest. Rivers are corridors of natural beauty,” says Jones. He speaks with awe of canoeing across Loch Tay (“every prospect proving how beautiful the Highlands are”) and on the Severn near Shrewsbury (“there’s a sort of perfection of scenery around there”).

Despite Jones’s enthusiasm, one does wonder how much more of an appetite viewers have for this style of Brit-tourism television. Jones has done Mountain and Rivers, others have done Britain’s coastline, weather, islands and roads. Andrew Marr even took to the skies in last year’s Britain from Above. What’s next on the horizon? Is Jones perhaps contemplating a series on the only thing left to do – the air that we breathe?

“Well,” he says, not quite rising to the bait. “We did sit down to chat about what to do after the success of Mountain, and we decided we should perhaps go ‘down the valley’, but that never quite came off.”

With a television career spanning everything from classic comedy to literary documentaries and popular building conservancy, Jones’s options are probably wider than most. Indeed, he’s speaking to me from Rome where he’s filming a second series of Greatest Cities of the World for ITV1.

“People ask me why I do so much,” Jones says. “But I just do what I’m asked to do. I make hay. I’m not much of a niche player. About five years ago, after the big success of Restoration, a very good friend at the BBC phoned me and said: ‘Griff we here at the BBC very definitely see you as the BBC’s person… expert… representative on old buildings which are in trouble and need rescuing.’ And I said wow, thanks, that’s a huge department of the BBC you’re giving me…”

He howls with laughter before delivering the punchline “But as it happened, they gave the next job to Dan Cruickshank anyway!”

Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones is on Sunday 26 July on BBC One at 9.00pm